Richard Baker, former Representative for Louisiana's 6th Congressional District

Baker was the representative for Louisiana’s 6^th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1987 to 2008.

Photo of Rep. Richard Baker [R-LA6, 1987-2008]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Baker is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2008 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Baker sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 2003 to Dec 10, 2008. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Baker was the primary sponsor of 7 bills that were enacted:

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Does 7 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Baker sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (18%) Commerce (15%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (14%) Economics and Public Finance (14%) Finance and Financial Sector (11%) Law (11%) Emergency Management (9%) Labor and Employment (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Baker recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Baker voted Aye

H.Res. 801 (110th): Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 3688) to implement the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.

Passed 349/55 on Nov 7, 2007.

Baker voted Nay

H.R. 400 (110th): War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007

Passed 375/3 on Oct 9, 2007.

Baker voted Yea

H.R. 3246 (110th): Regional Economic and Infrastructure Development Act of 2007

Passed 264/154 on Oct 4, 2007.

Baker voted Yea

H.Res. 704 (110th): Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 3246) to amend title 40, United States Code, to provide …

Passed 227/188 on Oct 4, 2007.

Baker voted Yea

H.R. 3087 (110th): A bill to require the Secretary of Defense to submit to Congress reports on the status of …

Passed 377/46 on Oct 2, 2007.

Baker voted Not Voting

H.R. 1908 (110th): Patent Reform Act of 2007

Passed 220/175 on Sep 7, 2007.

Baker voted Yea

H.R. 3074 (110th): Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008

Passed 268/153 on Jul 24, 2007.

Baker voted Nay

H.R. 556 (110th): Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007

Passed 370/45 on Jul 11, 2007.

Baker voted Yea

H.R. 1830 (110th): To extend the authorities of the Andean Trade Preference Act until February 29, 2008.

Passed 365/59 on Jun 27, 2007.

Baker voted Nay

H.R. 2317 (110th): Lobbying Transparency Act of 2007

Passed 382/37 on May 24, 2007.

Baker voted Yea

H.Res. 404 (110th): Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1427) to reform the regulation of certain housing-related Government-sponsored enterprises, …

Passed 223/186 on May 17, 2007.

Baker voted Aye

H.R. 1361 (110th): RECOVER Act

Passed 267/158 on Apr 18, 2007.

Missed Votes

From Jan 1987 to Jan 2008, Baker missed 693 of 12,283 roll call votes, which is 5.6%. This is much worse than the median of 3.1% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Jan 2008. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1987 Jan-Mar	39	12	30.8%	96^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	5	2.7%	38^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	7	7.4%	74^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	12	7.2%	58^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	17	34.7%	99^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	9	5.9%	70^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	5	5.6%	61^st
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	52^nd
1989 Apr-Jun	105	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	2	1.6%	37^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	12	9.9%	85^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	3	5.0%	76^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	4	2.7%	49^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	29	15.8%	96^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	12	8.4%	83^rd
1991 Jan-Mar	62	2	3.2%	56^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	9	6.5%	82^nd
1991 Jul-Sep	81	3	3.7%	50^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	13	8.0%	88^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	8	12.1%	88^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	5	2.7%	49^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	10	5.1%	74^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	11	26.8%	95^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	4	3.1%	59^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	6	3.2%	57^th
1993 Jul-Sep	164	11	6.7%	89^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	6	4.5%	78^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	5	5.3%	74^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	7	3.2%	65^th
1994 Jul-Sep	142	18	12.7%	90^th
1994 Oct-Nov	51	7	13.7%	92^nd
1995 Jan-Mar	279	1	0.4%	20^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	9	4.8%	79^th
1995 Jul-Sep	232	21	9.1%	94^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	20	10.8%	94^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	12	10.9%	92^nd
1996 Apr-Jun	182	11	6.0%	83^rd
1996 Jul-Sep	163	9	5.5%	82^nd
1997 Jan-Mar	71	2	2.8%	57^th
1997 Apr-Jun	174	6	3.4%	67^th
1997 Jul-Sep	232	15	6.5%	87^th
1997 Oct-Nov	163	12	7.4%	87^th
1998 Jan-Mar	89	1	1.1%	26^th
1998 Apr-Jun	185	10	5.4%	78^th
1998 Jul-Sep	199	19	9.5%	89^th
1998 Oct-Dec	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Jan-Mar	77	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Apr-Jun	184	8	4.3%	76^th
1999 Jul-Sep	204	16	7.8%	89^th
1999 Oct-Nov	146	5	3.4%	60^th
2000 Jan-Mar	95	1	1.1%	23^rd
2000 Apr-Jun	277	12	4.3%	71^st
2000 Jul-Sep	130	4	3.1%	62^nd
2000 Oct-Dec	101	8	7.9%	54^th
2001 Jan-Mar	75	0	0.0%	0^th
2001 Apr-Jun	135	7	5.2%	77^th
2001 Jul-Sep	149	2	1.3%	38^th
2001 Oct-Dec	153	16	10.5%	92^nd
2002 Jan-Mar	79	0	0.0%	0^th
2002 Apr-Jun	203	13	6.4%	79^th
2002 Jul-Sep	141	2	1.4%	36^th
2002 Oct-Nov	61	9	14.8%	91^st
2003 Jan-Mar	94	4	4.3%	71^st
2003 Apr-Jun	239	10	4.2%	70^th
2003 Jul-Sep	193	6	3.1%	64^th
2003 Oct-Dec	151	5	3.3%	52^nd
2004 Jan-Mar	104	2	1.9%	31^st
2004 Apr-Jun	221	13	5.9%	77^th
2004 Jul-Sep	161	16	9.9%	85^th
2004 Oct-Dec	58	2	3.4%	56^th
2005 Jan-Mar	90	4	4.4%	64^th
2005 Apr-Jun	272	8	2.9%	57^th
2005 Jul-Sep	146	18	12.3%	94^th
2005 Oct-Dec	163	6	3.7%	61^st
2006 Jan-Mar	81	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Apr-Jun	276	14	5.1%	80^th
2006 Jul-Sep	159	5	3.1%	64^th
2006 Nov-Dec	27	15	55.6%	97^th
2007 Jan-Mar	213	1	0.5%	17^th
2007 Apr-Jun	393	14	3.6%	69^th
2007 Jul-Sep	317	11	3.5%	66^th
2007 Oct-Dec	263	7	2.7%	45^th
2008 Jan-Mar	28	26	92.9%	100^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. Richard Baker

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Enacted Legislation

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Recently Introduced Bills

Voting Record

Key Votes

Baker voted Aye

Baker voted Nay

Baker voted Yea

Baker voted Yea

Baker voted Yea

Baker voted Not Voting

Baker voted Yea

Baker voted Nay

Baker voted Yea

Baker voted Nay

Baker voted Yea

Baker voted Aye

Missed Votes

Primary Sources